The market leader for customized X-ray inspection systems, VisiConsult, has been involved in the automatic evaluation of X-ray images for industrial quality inspection for many years. Starting this year, the medium-sized family-owned company is cooperating with the technology company Fujitsu. This strong cooperation between technology leaders has already been kicked-off at the beginning of the year.
VisiConsult’s X-ray solutions are often found in Quality departments that have the most demanding applications with the highest standards to achieve. These challenges are evidenced in the large number of customized solutions that have been provided to address these critical applications. VisiConsult is proud to help fulfill these needs, because in addition to the technology challenge, there is often a serious safety aspect at stake as well. In order to understand which requirements can be implemented, and what it takes to do so, our X-ray solution experts carefully evaluate the customer’s needs. Cross-industry technology trends are also taken into consideration in order to propose the absolute best solution. For example, forward-looking concepts such as artificial intelligence are regularly examined and evaluated internally, and in this case VisiConsult quickly concluded that smart inspection using AI already has real potential. This technology addresses a very complex part of the inspection process: interpretation. Especially when it comes to difficult inspections or large volumes, it is important to reduce the burden on personnel while maximizing efficiency – all with the serious mandate that quality must not suffer under any circumstances.
As a specialist in X-ray image processing, VisiConsult has been offering automatic evaluation solutions for more than 25 years; however, the use of AI poses a number of novel technological challenges. Therefore, VisiConsult has chosen to collaborate via a preferred cooperation agreement with Fujitsu – a technology leader in the field of AI. Both companies share the same interest and seamlessly complement each other’s capabilities and technologies. While Fujitsu provides its AI platform and proven algorithms, VisiConsult draws on their years of industry experience, image processing application knowledge and an enormous library of X-ray images.
Figure 1: An exciting kick-off meeting brought all of the stakeholders together
Based on these combined advantages, industry-specific algorithms will be developed and tested. Jörn Nitschmann, Head of Manufacturing and Automotive Central Europe from Fujitsu: “The deployment of Artificial Intelligence for quality assessment provides an enormous potential for business growth– either for the reliable detection of critical defects in parts, but also give relief to staff during repetitive routine activities. Due to the cooperation of Fujitsu and VisiConsult, manufacturing clients are profiting when using these custom-made and seamless Smart Inspection solutions. “ The goal being to connect these new AI algorithms with any X-ray system – no matter if they come from VisiConsult or another provider.
Whether this will be implemented on a local computer or via a cloud depends on the area of application and the customer’s requirements. With three renowned pilot customers from the aerospace, oil & gas and services sectors already engaged, the project is starting with a focus on the automated evaluation of weld seams. Further use cases, such as castings, are already in the pipeline. Interested customers can contact VisiConsult to join the waiting list for future pilot projects.
MORE INFORMATION
https://visiconsult.de/smart-inspection/
